Seahawk
02-23-2012, 04:50 AM
Armed Police Batrider (http://www.retrouprising.com/game-menu/game/7814/) has a stage edit option that is accessible by pressing buttons A and B while the Normal or Advanced course options are selected.
Doing so sends you to this screen:
http://www.retrouprising.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2390&stc=1&d=1329990730
Here you can view the stage order up to the highway stage the game has set up for you before you play the game. The stages that happen afterward are always fixed (optional Black Heart Mk. II boss stage, mandatory Zenovia City, optional Bashinet-R boss stage, optional Glow Squid boss stage, mandatory Gigantech Building final stage) on the Advanced course. Selecting "NO" will send you to the Player type select as normal, the stage layout will be presented as seen on the screen. Selecting ??? will do the same and also randomize the layout again so you don't know the order.
Selecting YES sends you here:
http://www.retrouprising.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2391&stc=1&d=1329991392
Where you can select what order to do stages 2, 3, and 4 in, or opt not to do some or any of them.
Q: But Seahawk, that's cheating and unfair!!!
A: No, it's not.
A. This option is available on every arcade PCB of this game.
B. Anyone can do it - you just have to know how to access it.
C. You don't do yourself any favors by skipping stages - this lowers your scoring potential.
Q: So if it doesn't make a difference, why should we let you do it?
A: It DOES make a difference.
Just knowing the layout lets you change out the order of your team, so you can plan your bombing and dying better. Letting you change the stage order would let you find the optimal strategy for scoring and keeping yourself alive.
Q: Why on earth would you need to plan your deaths and team order?
A: The game is designed around you getting lots of points to more lives (the extend target is every 1.5 million, very generous) and dying a lot to A) Get more bombs for bombing enemies and unconvering medals for even more points and B) keeping the difficulty under control.
To keep it simple, the difficulty of the game is increases for every almost action you can take (including just staying alive), and dying brings it down.
If you really want the details, see here (http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=489829#p489829) and here (http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=489830#p489830).
Q: Any other reasons?
A: Yep. The game has many secret bosses that appear only if certain conditions are fulfilled. With all of them, one of the conditions is "Have character X alive at this certain time". With planning the stage order and team order you can ensure that character X is alive at that time, for more points. Of course, this means fighting the boss (where you can die), so it's not like it's free points.
Q: Annnddd...?
A: Weellllllll.....this is an unavoidable side effect of posting this, but now the cat is out of the bag, so to speak. So now if you (the mods) decide that this is NOT OK, then it will be another special condition to watch out for while score grading.
It would be better for everyone involved if it were allowed and then nobody has to worry about it, ever, because as stated before, the highest scores will go to the players who play ALL the stages; nobody is getting a free pass.
(FYI, I have not posted any scores while using this option. Pinky swear.)
SO IN CLOSING
TL;DR
A. This option is available on every arcade PCB of this game.
B. Anyone can do it - you just have to know how to access it (Button A+B while selecting Normal or Advanced Course).
C. You don't do yourself any favors by skipping stages - this lowers your scoring potential.
D. Time and worry saved by all parties by not having to worry about this
E. Allows for super high level complex skill play
Q: What does "super high level complex skill play" look like?
A: THIS (http://server6.firestorage.jp/download61.mcgi?act=download_file&d=665d59&e=93f2ab&key=4711e80aee6bd743ea78d3ea050eeb073de6c49a)
(Link to download page if above link doesn't work: Clicky (http://firestorage.jp/download/4711e80aee6bd743ea78d3ea050eeb073de6c49a) )
Or, picture for lazy viewers.
http://www.retrouprising.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2392&stc=1&d=1329994167
Thanks for reading!
Doing so sends you to this screen:
http://www.retrouprising.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2390&stc=1&d=1329990730
Here you can view the stage order up to the highway stage the game has set up for you before you play the game. The stages that happen afterward are always fixed (optional Black Heart Mk. II boss stage, mandatory Zenovia City, optional Bashinet-R boss stage, optional Glow Squid boss stage, mandatory Gigantech Building final stage) on the Advanced course. Selecting "NO" will send you to the Player type select as normal, the stage layout will be presented as seen on the screen. Selecting ??? will do the same and also randomize the layout again so you don't know the order.
Selecting YES sends you here:
http://www.retrouprising.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2391&stc=1&d=1329991392
Where you can select what order to do stages 2, 3, and 4 in, or opt not to do some or any of them.
Q: But Seahawk, that's cheating and unfair!!!
A: No, it's not.
A. This option is available on every arcade PCB of this game.
B. Anyone can do it - you just have to know how to access it.
C. You don't do yourself any favors by skipping stages - this lowers your scoring potential.
Q: So if it doesn't make a difference, why should we let you do it?
A: It DOES make a difference.
Just knowing the layout lets you change out the order of your team, so you can plan your bombing and dying better. Letting you change the stage order would let you find the optimal strategy for scoring and keeping yourself alive.
Q: Why on earth would you need to plan your deaths and team order?
A: The game is designed around you getting lots of points to more lives (the extend target is every 1.5 million, very generous) and dying a lot to A) Get more bombs for bombing enemies and unconvering medals for even more points and B) keeping the difficulty under control.
To keep it simple, the difficulty of the game is increases for every almost action you can take (including just staying alive), and dying brings it down.
If you really want the details, see here (http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=489829#p489829) and here (http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=489830#p489830).
Q: Any other reasons?
A: Yep. The game has many secret bosses that appear only if certain conditions are fulfilled. With all of them, one of the conditions is "Have character X alive at this certain time". With planning the stage order and team order you can ensure that character X is alive at that time, for more points. Of course, this means fighting the boss (where you can die), so it's not like it's free points.
Q: Annnddd...?
A: Weellllllll.....this is an unavoidable side effect of posting this, but now the cat is out of the bag, so to speak. So now if you (the mods) decide that this is NOT OK, then it will be another special condition to watch out for while score grading.
It would be better for everyone involved if it were allowed and then nobody has to worry about it, ever, because as stated before, the highest scores will go to the players who play ALL the stages; nobody is getting a free pass.
(FYI, I have not posted any scores while using this option. Pinky swear.)
SO IN CLOSING
TL;DR
A. This option is available on every arcade PCB of this game.
B. Anyone can do it - you just have to know how to access it (Button A+B while selecting Normal or Advanced Course).
C. You don't do yourself any favors by skipping stages - this lowers your scoring potential.
D. Time and worry saved by all parties by not having to worry about this
E. Allows for super high level complex skill play
Q: What does "super high level complex skill play" look like?
A: THIS (http://server6.firestorage.jp/download61.mcgi?act=download_file&d=665d59&e=93f2ab&key=4711e80aee6bd743ea78d3ea050eeb073de6c49a)
(Link to download page if above link doesn't work: Clicky (http://firestorage.jp/download/4711e80aee6bd743ea78d3ea050eeb073de6c49a) )
Or, picture for lazy viewers.
http://www.retrouprising.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2392&stc=1&d=1329994167
Thanks for reading!